A Little Background

I am currently 23 years old and am in College. I work in a Screenprinting company, which for those who don't know, is a company that puts images on t-shirts. I also do signs, banners, graphic design, and whatever else takes my fancy. I am currently in school to major in Biology, to put specifics on it, I have plans (which are ever changing) to specialize in Biochemisty. Again, every time I try a new branch of biology I find something else I love to. I also write, and was originally planning on having an English minor. I love to read, anything from the classics such as The Scarlet Letter, The Great Gatsby, and Brave New World...not to mention my favorite, Dracula...to such newest novelests as Stephen King, Anne Rice, and J.K. Rowling. My tastes range from horror and sci-fi, to law thrillers, to fantansy. Basically if it's worth reading, I will. I also have a passion for reading books that movies have been based on. I am chronically doing this because I always love the what could have beens, it's amazing what gets left out!

Along with school and reading my other passion is television and movies. I have a large collection of DVD's, especially horror and sci-fi movies and television shows ranging from the Jossverse, to Boston Legal, to Battlestar Galactica and Beverly Hills 90210. And of course you know where those passions lead to. A great deal of my time is spent playing around in photoshop. Since beginning I have progressed from PS 5 to PS 8. I have fanart for 90% of my favorite shows and with a larger domain I will be enlarging my site to reflect all of the shows. I will also be adding numerous other goodies to list, as a result of my PS love!

And So Came Fanart

In late 2003 I found the Jossverse, beginning with 'Angel the Series' and 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'. Upon discovering these amazing shows I became obsessed with finding something to show my devotion on my desktop screen. When looking for wallpapers I came across many amazing sites with even more amazing artwork and found myself wondering how in the world something like that could be made. I was a virtual computer illiterate at the time and knew only that I wanted to learn. After reading numerous tutorials I stumbled across Buffyworld Forums where many of the fanartists I had admired conversed and offered advice and critism on artwork. Curious and looking for pointers I began dabbling in Photoshop 5 trying to make something worth seeing. After cautiously posting my first pieces I was cast into a world of amazing people who really cared about one another and who were devoted to helping others. Quickly my artwork began to be molded and miraculously started getting praise from other members. Within a small matter of time and a great deal of praise and encouragement later I began to find my own path as a fanartist. Shortly there after I met Shane who saw in me potential and offered to give my work a home, thus giving life to Black Lagoon.

Along with this offer came many new challenges. I had never had a site and had in fact never even heard of HTML. Again I returned to tutorials to help guide me and soon uncovered the basics and posted my first version, which considering my knowledge at the time, had only minimal problems. Quickly I began to play around with different codes and styles and after my first month of being opened recieved my first two Site of the Month awards. Since then I have recieved many more, including Best Fansite and Best New Site from SYCA, and over 100 personal art awards from various challenges held all over the world wide web. This site has also quadrupled in size and is now home to over 200 wallpapers, 11 gradient sets, and 40 textures...and still growing! At this time I would like to Thank Shane for helping me to gain the confidence to try new things. Without this site I probably never would have tried to achieve so much, including pushing forward to trying new styles with my fanart. I would also like to thank all those who are listed as my family. All of them have considerably contributed to where I am and where I will go, they have encouraged me and been there in so many ways. Without them I never would have even continued to try. My affiliates, who wanted to been connected to this site because they saw something here, again deserve much of my gratitude and lastly, to my visitors. Thank you, thank you, thank you. You keep this site thriving. Because of the caring and devoted visitors this site does not get stagnate, but instead gets multiple updates and never sits. Their encouragement and enthusiasm over this site makes me excited to post my newest pieces. You are all amazing.